In marine seismic exploration it is important to be able to determine the position or shape of one or more streamer cables being towed behind an exploration vessel. It is common practice to let the position determination be based upon a navigation system of higher level, as, for example, GPS satellites, which gives a number of reference positions in the total arrangement being towed. The number of reference positions is mostly relatively low, and as a rule the reference positions are associated with the forward part of the whole assembly being towed as well as to one or more end buoys which terminate the assembly. The shape or path of the streamers over the relatively long distance between the forward and the rearward end of the towed assembly, is usually determined by means of a number of magnetic compasses being provided on the streamer, in particular at the active sections thereof. Moreover there are known proposals based upon trilateration (Norwegian published patent application No. 173.206) for the purpose of avoiding the dependancy on magnetic compasses.
It is also known per se to tow surface buoys or floats being anchored to sections of the streamer, but in such cases the buoys or floats are not anchored to the active sections of the streamer. The problem in this connection consists therein that this kind of buoy or float will introduce noise which interferes with the detection and the recording of reflected seismic signals.
Thus, on the above background this invention takes as a starting point an apparatus for towing a surface buoy or float, in particular a reference position buoy from a marine seismic streamer adapted to be immersed in the sea during operation, whereby the towing takes place by means of a length of cable or the like being attached to a section of the streamer and to the surface buoy respectively.